Senator BERNARDI (South Australia) (15:18): I perfectly understand the theatre of politics and I do understand that those on the opposite side are meant to come into this place, pluck figures out of the air and just read the talking points that they have been given. But I would implore upon them, if they are genuine about the crisis of confidence that is engulfing politics in this country, to actually speak the truth. That is because what we have is people like Senator Cameron and Senator O'Neill coming here and reading verbatim what is put in front of them, with no regard to the veracity of the claims that they make. Senator O'Neill has reflected about changes to health and changes to education. Let us put this in perspective: there are no changes in the forward estimates and, in fact, there are actually improvements in the forward estimates from when we came into government for health, pensions and education. But what Senator O'Neill is referring to is these ridiculous last-minute decisions of their government, which said, 'In 2020, 2025 or 2050, we are going to put more money into something.' The money was never there. It was a figment of the then Prime Minister's—I cannot even recall who was, quite frankly; it could have been Mr Rudd or Ms Gillard—imagination. It was a falsehood peddled upon the Australian people. The result of that is that we have the likes of Senator Cameron and Senator O'Neill coming in here, who make the spurious claims and who pluck elements of a speech and then try to portray that without any context around it. It is demeaning. I have respect the Senator O'Neill. I even have respect to Senator Cameron, albeit that he is part of the socialist mob and a much different philosophical line than myself. He does believe in something. But this diminishes them in the public capacity. Let me make the point that the crisis of trust in politics and politicians in this country is born of the actions of the New South Wales Labor Party and the federal Labor Party, because the federal Labor Party backed up that man who abused the trust of many thousands of union members, Mr Craig Thomson. Mr Craig Thomson, we will recall, was a man who used hard-earned money of those low-paid workers from the Health Services Union for prostitutes and to rent the red ruby room in New South Wales for his prostitutes. What sort of betrayal of trust is that? We also know that those on the other side—including Senator Dastyari, as he was the shop steward for the Labor Party at the time—spent hundreds of thousands of dollars of Labor Party funds defending Craig Thomson, defending the indefensible. Senator O'Neill: Eleven NSW Liberals were removed! Senator BERNARDI: Senator O'Neill is here defending it again. It diminishes you in the public square, Senator O'Neill. Senator O'Neill: Chris Spence, Chris Hartcher and Darren Webber! The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Order! Senator BERNARDI: If you want to uphold yourself as someone of integrity, you do not come in here and defend the actions of Senator Dastyari and the disgraced Craig Thomson. You come in here and you condemn the bad and corrupt Ian Macdonald and you condemn the bad and corrupt Eddie Obeid. Senator O'Neill: There are 11 NSW Liberals sitting on the crossbench in shame. The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Order! Senator BERNARDI: You condemn the grubbiness, the filth and the disgust that the New South Wales electorate exposed and turfed out. That is what you do if you want to be a person of integrity, but no: we have the defenders of it on that side. Let me make this point: when the people of New South Wales return a Baird Liberal government this weekend, what we will see is the extinguishment and demise of that small man of Australian politics, whose vision for this country is so myopic and so short-sighted that he is already under enormous pressure in his own party. That man is Mr Bill Shorten. He is a man who has no plan for this country. He is a man who is prepared to sacrifice the future of our children, who is prepared to stand in the way of returning the budget to surplus, who is prepared to stand in the way of making progress to fix the mistakes of the previous government. He is a man the Australian people cannot trust. If you doubt that, ring Mr Rudd, ring Ms Gillard, and say, 'Can you trust Mr Shorten?' The answer to that is no. He is an impediment to this country becoming all that it can be. Shame on you for defending him. (Time expired)